<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>[ Tell Tale ] by VesperCat</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22511089">[ Tell Tale ]</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/VesperCat/pseuds/VesperCat'>VesperCat</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Elio/Oliver fics [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Call Me By Your Name (2017), Call Me By Your Name (2017) RPF, Call Me By Your Name - All Media Types, Call Me by Your Name - André Aciman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, M/M, Merman Elio, One Shot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:14:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>526</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22511089</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/VesperCat/pseuds/VesperCat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <b>“You okay?”</b>
</p><p> </p><p>  <b>“Me okay,” Elio answers, a smile making an appearance again.<br/></b><br/></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Oliver/Elio Perlman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Elio/Oliver fics [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1252790</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>[ Tell Tale ]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thank you to the friends who read, made suggestions and changes.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Elio, why don't you come swim with me?” Oliver suggests, casting a shadow on a sun bathing Elio.</p><p>“Later,” Elio tosses out as a languid verbal shrug from the cloth beach chair, careful to avoid attracting unwanted attention to the pair.</p><p>“Alright,” Oliver nods his head, thinking with hands on his hips then drops his towel and toes off his shoes.</p><p>Moving as quietly as he can, Oliver picks the smaller frame up and plops into the small pool with the unsuspecting Elio with him. Elio instinctively clings onto the bigger body at first but let's go when he realises what had happened to him.</p><p>Oliver's wide smile turns into lips pressing together in concern and worry when Elio doesn't immediately rise to the surface and he feels something brush against his legs.</p><p>When Elio does emerge from under the glistening green-blue water, the once fluffy curls are flattened against his forehead with his soft features contorted into a scowl.</p><p>The tail. It's what catches Oliver's eyes. The beautiful shimmering tail. The colours are scattered like a tortoise shell cat's. Teal, turquoise and emerald with some thin streaks of chocolate brown here and there.</p><p>Oliver never imagined that they're real. Sure he has read the tall tales, seen the paintings and the fake shrunken taxidermy but seeing the thing of centuries old myths in breathing flesh is...</p><p>"There. Happy now?" Elio says as if his legs didn't change into the tailed limb.</p><p>"What?" Oliver somehow vocalises, "how?"</p><p>"Mom's side," Elio states, swimming up to the furthest edge of the pool, crossing his arms and rests his head on his wet arms, "please don't tell anyone."</p><p>"That's why you--"</p><p>"Don't swim in front of the others,"</p><p>"Yeah. I thought you were scared of water or something,"</p><p>"So you throw me in the very thing you thought I might be scared of," Elio points out and pushes away from the rough poolside stone.</p><p>Oliver flushes with embarrassment, cheeks and throat turning pink as Elio approaches.</p><p>“I suppose you'll want to touch,”</p><p>Oliver feels caught out,”uh, um, may I?”</p><p>“You've already found my secret, you might as well indulge,” Elio muses, pulling Oliver closer by his shoulders, head coming to rest on his chest.</p><p>Oliver hesitantly holds onto Elio’s familiar waist at first, then the large hand skims over pale flesh and down to the shimmering scales.</p><p>When he looks to Elio’s face, his eyelashes are fanning over his cheeks and mouth agape in a pleasing smile. Oliver runs his hands up Elio’s back, down to the turquoise thigh again.<br/>
He feels the younger man take a quick breath in and cling to him more.</p><p>“When do you… change?” Oliver asks softly, pausing on the different kind of exploring.</p><p>Elio takes a minute to answer, “When I'm knee deep in or out of water,”</p><p>When Oliver doesn't start caressing his skin again, Elio guides his hand over the scales again.</p><p>“You okay?”</p><p>“Me okay,” Elio answers, a smile making an appearance again. </p><p>“More okay than two mornings ago?”</p><p>“Much more okay than two mornings ago,” Elio reassures, “no-one has ever touched my tail before,”</p><p>“No-one?”</p><p>“Only you, Oliver,”</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>